Delivering a filtered search result

ABSTRACT

Delivering a filtered search result includes identifying a filtered search result in response to a search query from a user that is associated with at least one member of an augmented social group where the augmented social group including social network connections of the user and individuals other than the social network connections who share a common interest with the user and delivering the filtered search result to the user through a user interface.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to delivering a filtered search result toa user, and more specifically, delivering a filtered search result to auser associated with members of the user's augmented social group.

Search engines allow users to input search queries based on keywords.The search engine searches online resources that match the keywords inthe search query. The search results are delivered to the user as alisting of results. The results generally include a list of items.Often, the titles of the item, a link to the item's online location, anda short description showing the item's relevance to the keywords aredisplayed with the items. Some search engines select items to beincluded in the list based on the item's content and metadata tags. Ahyperlink markup language (HTML) title tag of the items can be used asthe title of the items in the list while the description tag is used forthe short description.

BRIEF SUMMARY

A method of delivering a filtered search result includes identifying afiltered search result in response to a search query from a user that isassociated with at least one member of an augmented social group wherethe augmented social group includes social network connections of theuser and individuals other than the social network connections who sharea common interest with the user and delivering the filtered searchresult to the user through a user interface.

A system of delivering a filtered search result includes an augmentedsocial group determination engine to determine members of an augmentedsocial group that includes social network connections of the user andindividuals other than the social network connections who share a commoninterest with the user, an identifying engine to identify a filteredsearch result in response to the search query from the user that isassociated with at least one of the members of the augmented socialgroup, and a delivering engine to deliver the filtered search result tothe user through a user interface.

A computer program product for delivering a filtered search resultincludes a tangible computer readable storage medium, the tangiblecomputer readable storage medium having computer readable program codeembodied therewith, the computer readable program code having programinstructions that, when executed, cause a processor to determine aninterest of a user with identifying keywords in an aggregated datahistory of the user in textual communications, browsing history, andsearching history; determine members of an augmented social group thatincludes social network connections of the user and individuals otherthan the social network connections who share a common interest with theuser; identify a filtered search result in response to the search queryfrom the user that is linked to at least one of the member of theaugmented social group; and deliver the filtered search result to theuser through a user interface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example of a delivery system according to oneexample of the principles described herein.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example of a user's profile according to oneexample of the principles described herein.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an example of delivering filtered search resultsaccording to one example of the principles described herein.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of an example of a method for delivering a filteredsearch result according to one example of the principles describedherein.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of an example of a method for creating an augmentedsocial group according to one example of the principles describedherein.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of an example of a method for delivering a filteredsearch result according to one example of the principles describedherein.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of an example of a delivery system according to oneexample of the principles described herein.

FIG. 8 is a diagram of another example of a delivery system according toone example of the principles described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present specification describes a method and system for delivering afiltered search result to a user based on the search result'sassociation with a member of the user's augmented social group.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied as a system, method, or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readablemedium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber,a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storagedevice, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storagemedium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a programfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations of the presentinvention may be written in an object oriented programming language suchas Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like. However, the computer program codefor carrying out operations of the present invention may also be writtenin conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The program codemay execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user'scomputer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user'scomputer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remotecomputer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may beconnected to the user's computer through a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

The present invention is described below with reference to flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) andcomputer program products according to embodiments of the invention. Itwill be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/orblock diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computerprogram instructions. These computer program instructions may beprovided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purposecomputer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce amachine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor ofthe computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, createmeans for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchartand/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

Often, search results delivered to the user include a large amount ofinformation. The large amounts of information can bury the searchresults of greatest interest to the user. This causes the user to spenda significant amount of time going through the search results to findthe results that are the most interesting to the user. Additionally, dueto the large volume of data, a user may overlook the search results mostinteresting to the user.

The principles described herein can cause a reduction in the amount ofresults returned to the user or prioritize the results in manner thataids the user in finding information of interest to the user. Theprinciples described herein include a method for delivering a filteredsearch result. Such a method can include identifying a filtered searchresult in response to a search query from a user that is associated withat least one member of an augmented social group where the augmentedsocial group includes social network connections of the user andindividuals other than the social network connections who share a commoninterest with the user and delivering the filtered search result to theuser through a user interface.

Referring now to the figures, FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example of adelivery system (100). In this example, the delivery system (100) is incommunication with a client device (102) through an intranet (104). Theintranet (104) is also in communication with a user's interest network(106), the user's social network (108), the user's communicationshistory (110), the user's browsing history (112), and the user's searchhistory (114). Further, the delivery system (100) includes an augmentedsocial group determination engine (116) and a query engine (118).

The client device (102) may be any appropriate device that allows theuser to access information from the internet. For example, the clientdevice (102) may be a desktop, a laptop, a personal computer, a mobiledevice, a phone, an electronic tablet, another type of client device, orcombinations thereof.

The user may access the delivery system (100) through the client device(102) over the intranet (104). The intranet (104) may be a businessintranet, an organization's intranet, another type of intranet, orcombinations thereof. While this example is described with reference tointranets, any appropriate type of network may be used in accordance tothe principles described herein, such as the internet, local areanetworks, wide area networks, private virtual networks, other types ofnetworks, or combinations thereof.

The user may input a search query into the query engine (118) of thedelivery system (100) through the client device (102). The deliverysystem (100) may search the resources available in the intranet (104) tofind matches to the search query. In response to generating a list ofsearch results, the delivery system (100) filters the search results toprovide the user with a more meaningful list of search results. Tofilter the search results, the delivery system (100) uses an augmentedsocial group determination engine (116) to determine an augmented socialgroup of the user. The delivery system (100) filters the search resultsbased on those items in the search results that are associated with atleast one member of the user's augmented social group.

The augmented social group includes the user's social network (108) andthe user's interest network (106). The user's social network (108) canbe determined by including the user's social networking siteconnections, email contacts, instant messaging contacts, phone contacts,social networking connections' connections, other forms of contacts orconnections, or combinations thereof.

The interest network (106) is made up of individuals that are notalready part of the user's social network (108), but share a commoninterest with the user. The user's interests can be determined bysearching the user's aggregated data history. The aggregated datahistory may include the user's search history (114), the user's browsinghistory (112), the user's communication history (110), other historypertaining to the user, or combinations thereof. The augmented socialgroup determination engine (116) may find keywords in the user'saggregated data history. For example, the augmented social groupdetermination engine (116) may discover that the user used the keyword“Java” in her communications with others at least seven times within thelast week. Such a keyword frequency suggests to the augmented socialgroup determination engine (116) that the user has an interest in Java.The augmented social group determination engine (116) may also searchfor keywords in the search history (114) and the browsing history (112).The user may control the keyword frequency threshold for determiningwhich keywords constituent an interest.

In some examples, the user's interest for the purpose of determining theuser's interest group is constrained to interests relevant to thesearch. For example, the user may have an interest in Java based onrecent communications, but if the search query is on long term evolution(LTE), then the interests used to determine the interest group areconstrained to interests that are related to communications. Thus, insuch a search query, the interest of Java would not be used to determinethe augmented social group. The augmented social group determinationsystem (116) may include mechanisms for determining which of the user'sinterests will apply to specific search queries based on the user'sinterests and the terms in the search queries.

The augmented social group determination engine (116) can track theinterests of all of its users on a real time basis. Accordingly, theaugmented social group determination engine (116) can continuouslyupdate interest networks for each of its users.

The user's interests may also be determined by analyzing personalinformation about a user. For example, the user's social networking siteprofile may include an interests section that can be used to determinethe user's interests. Further, the user's employment title, geographicalresidence, hobbies, recent trips, other data in the social networkingsite, or combinations thereof may be used to determine interests of theuser.

The augmented social group determination engine (116) may have aconstraining factor that limits the size of the interest network (106).For example, the constraining factor may limit the interest network toco-workers, organization membership, profession, industry membership,geographical residence, other restrictions, or combinations thereof. Forexample, the delivery system (100) may be implemented by a corporationand may purposely limit the delivery system's users to just itsemployees. As a result, the augmented social group determination engine(116) has a constraining factor that limits the members of the interestgroup to be the user's co-workers. In other examples, the deliverysystem (100) is part of a publicly accessible online service and theaugmented social group determination engine (116) puts constrainingfactors on the interest networks (106) to keep the interest networks toa reasonable size. For example, the augmented social group determinationengine (116) may limit the interest group to a geographical regionwithout input from the user. In yet other examples, the augmented socialgroup determination engine (116) selects constraining factors based onuser input. Further, the augmented social group determination engine(116) may consider multiple factors in a constraining policy todetermine how to constrain the size of the interest network.

The augmented social group determination engine (116) may also constrainthe size of the interest network based on a time constraint. Forexample, the keyword frequency may be based on a recent time period,such as a week. In such an example, the user's interest network maychange frequently depending on the projects that the user is involvedwith from week to week. In other examples, the time period is set formonths or longer, which causes the interest network to be moreconsistent over time.

The delivery system (100) uses the augmented social group members tofilter the search results. For example, the delivery system (100)determines which of the search results is associated with one of themembers of the user's augmented social group. A search result may beassociated with a member of the augmented social network if the searchresult was authored by the member, posted by the member, referenced bythe member, rated by the member, contributed to by the member, otherassociations, or combinations thereof. In some examples, the searchresult may be associated with the augmented social network member if thesearch result mentions the member.

The delivery system (100) may deliver just those search results that areassociated with the members of the augmented social group. In otherexamples, the delivery system (100) prioritizes the search results thatare associated with the members of the social network before listing theother search results. The order of the filtered search results may bebased on an ordering policy. The ordering policy may include rules andfactors that account for whether the member is from the social network,whether the member is from the interest network, the strength of theuser's interest, the strength of the member's interest, the number ofinterests that the user and the member have in common, relevancy to thesearch query, other factors, or combinations thereof.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example of a user's profile (200) according toone example of the principles described herein. In this example, theuser's profile (200) is part of a company intranet and is displayed in adisplay (202) of a client device. The user's profile (200) includes animage (204), the user's name (206), a list (208) of interests, and theuser's augmented social group (210).

The augmented social group (210) includes the user's social networkconnections (212) and the members of the user's interest network (214)within the company. Other members of the user's social networkconnections may include email contacts, instant messaging contacts,contacts stored in the user's phone, other contacts, or combinationsthereof. The members of the interest network (214) are not the user'ssocial network connections (212). The interests may be determined frominformation in the user's profile, from the user's communications, fromthe user's browsing history, from the user's search history, from otherareas of the user's aggregated data history, or combinations thereof.

While the examples above have been described with reference to specificmechanisms for determining members of the user's interest network, anyappropriate mechanisms for determining members of the user's interestnetwork may be used in accordance with the principles described herein.Further, while the examples above have been described with reference tospecific mechanisms for determining the user's social networkconnections, any appropriate mechanisms for determining the user'ssocial networking connections may be used.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an example of delivering filtered search results,in this example, the delivery system (300) is in communication with adisplay (302). The display includes filtered search results (304).

The user inputs a search query into the delivery system (300). Thedelivery system (300) searches for items that match the terms in thesearch query. In response to finding search results, the delivery system(300) analyzes the search results to determine whether any of the searchresults is associated with any of the members of the user's augmentedsocial group. If so, the delivery system (300) delivers the searchresults associated with the members of the augmented social group.

In this example, the delivery system (300) delivers just those searchresults that are associated with the members of the augmented socialgroup. For example, a paper (306) written by John Doe, a member of theuser's interest network (214, FIG. 2), is listed in the filtered searchresults. Further, a blog post (308) posted by Mary Smith, one of theuser's social network connections (212, FIG. 2), is also listed in thefiltered search results. Additionally, a news article (310) referencedby James Doe, another member of the user's interest network (214, FIG.2), is listed in the filtered search results. Each of the search resultsis somehow associated with a member of the augmented social groupthrough authorship, posting, referencing, another type of association,or combinations thereof. In this example, just those search results thatare associated with a member of the augmented social group are includedin the filtered search results. In other examples, the search resultsthat are associated with the augmented social group are included in amore inclusive list of search results, but those search results that areassociated with a member of the augmented social group are prioritizedin the search results' listing to assist the user in finding the searchresults that are likely to be of more interest.

The order that the search results associated with members of theaugmented social group are listed in the filtered search results may bedetermined by an ordering policy. The ordering policy may considerfactors based on how many members of the augmented social group areassociated with the search results, whether a member of an interestnetwork is associated with the search results, whether a social networkconnection is associated with the search result, the keyword relevancyof the search result, the strength of the user's interest with theinterest network member, other factors, or combinations thereof.

The user may input a search query into a search field provided by thedelivery system (300) that is related to a project that the user isworking on for her employer. The filtered search results helps the userfind relevant material from either those that the user is alreadyworking with (those in the user's social network) or from those who havecommon interests with the user. Within the user's company, it is likelythat there are some people with whom the user has never worked with, butwho have information that is relevant to the user's job. For example,the user may be involved in developing Java products for her employer.While the user is involved with development, the user may not bedirectly involved with those that market Java products in the company.However, the marketers working with Java products are likely to be inthe user's interest network. Thus, the filtered search results arelikely to find search results from those marketers.

While this example has been described with reference to specific ways ofdelivering and/or ordering the filtered search results to the user, anyappropriate mechanisms for delivering and/or ordering the filteredsearch results may be used in accordance with the principles describedherein. Further, while the examples above have been described withreference to specific mechanisms for determining a user's interest, anyappropriate mechanism for determining a user's interest may be used inaccordance with the principles described herein.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of an example of a method (400) for delivering afiltered search result. In this example, the method (400) includesidentifying (402) a filtered search result in response to a search queryfrom a user that is associated with at least one member of an augmentedsocial group where the augmented social group includes social networkconnections of the user and individuals other than the social networkconnections who share a common interest with the user and delivering(404) the filtered search results to the user through a user interface.

The method may also include determining the membership of the augmentedsocial network. The social network connections may include socialnetworking site connections, email contacts, instant messaging contacts,phone contacts, other types of contacts or connections, or combinationsthereof.

The common interests of the user may be determined by analyzing theuser's aggregated data history, which may include the user's browsinghistory, search history, and communications history. For example, thedelivery system may look for keywords in the user's communications(emits, instant messages, etc), search queries, in the uniform resourcelocations (URLs) of the websites visited by the user, other histories,or combinations thereof. Further, the aggregated data history mayinclude the content in the user's social networking site, such as listedinterests, job title, office location, other social profile information,or combinations thereof.

The size of the interest network, and therefore the size of theaugmented social network, may be limited by a constraining factor. Forexample, a constraining factor may be constrained by a geographiclocation, a time period, a membership in an organization, employment ina company, other constraining factors, or combinations thereof. Thesocial network connections include the connections of those that theuser is directly connected to. For example, if a search result matchesthe content of the search query and the search result is associated witha connection of one of the user's connections, the search result will beincluded in the filtered search results.

The delivering system may deliver just those search results that areassociated with members of the augmented social group. In otherexamples, the filtered search results include more than just thoseresults that are associated with the members of the augmented socialgroup, but the search results that are associated with the members ofthe augmented social group are displayed in such a way to catch theuser's attention. For example, the results associated with members ofthe augmented social group may be prioritized to the front of the listedresults. In other examples, the results associated with members of theaugmented social group are highlighted, bolded, underlined, italicized,indented, or otherwise marked to catch the user's attention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of an example of a method (500) for creating anaugmented social group. In this example, the method (500) includesidentifying (502) social networking connections of a user, andidentifying (504) interests from a user's aggregated data history. Themethod also includes determining (506) whether there is a constrainingfactor restricting the size of the user's interest network. If there isa constraining factor, the method includes restricting (508) a searchfield for the interest network according to the constraining factor. Themethod continues with searching (510) for individuals outside of theuser's social networking connections that have common interests with theuser to create an interest network, and creating (512) an augmentedsocial group for the user that includes both the social networkingconnections and the interest network.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of an example of a method (600) for delivering afiltered search result. In this example, the method (600) includesreceiving (602) a query from a user, searching (604) for resources thatmatch the query, and compiling (606) the search results. The method(600) also includes determining (608) which search results areassociated with members of the user's augmented social group, anddelivering (610) to the user filtered search results based on membershipin the user's augmented social group.

In other examples, the search may be restricted to search just materialsthat are associated with the members of the augmented social network. Insuch examples, the search is filtered, so fewer results are retrievedoverall. However, the results from the filtered search are more relevantthan if the search was unrestricted. Further, in such an example, thesearch results may not be filtered after the search because the resultsare already filtered since the search was restricted to just materialsassociated with the members of the augmented social network.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of an example of a delivery system (700) accordingto one example of the principles described herein. The delivery system(700) includes an augmented social group determination engine (702) anidentifying engine (704) and a delivery engine (706). In this example,the delivery system (700) also includes an interest determination engine(708). The engines (702, 704, 706, 708) refer to a combination ofhardware and program instructions to perform a designated function. Eachof the engines (702, 704, 706, 708) may include a processor and memory.The program instructions are stored in the memory and cause theprocessor to execute the designated function of the engine.

The augmented social group determination engine (702) determines themembers of the augmented social group from both the user's interestnetwork and social network. In some examples, the augmented social groupdetermination engine (702) uses the interest determination engine (708)to determine the interests of the user to construct the user's interestnetwork. The identifying engine (704) identifies a filtered searchresult that is associated with at least one member of the augmentedsocial group. The delivery engine (706) delivers the filtered searchresult to the user through a display of a client device.

FIG. 8 is a diagram of another example of a delivery system. In thisexample, the delivery system (800) includes processing resources (802)that are in communication with memory resources (804). Processingresources (802) include at least one processor and other resources usedto process programmed instructions. The memory resources (804) representgenerally any memory capable of storing data such as programmedinstructions or data structures used by the delivery system (800). Theprogrammed instructions shown stored in the memory resources (804)include a social network connections determiner (806), an interestdeterminer (808), a keyword determiner (810), a communications analyzer(812), a search history analyzer (814), a browsing history analyzer(816), an interest network determiner (818), asocial augmented groupdeterminer (820), a constraint factor determiner (822), a query receiver(824), a search crawler (826), a search filter (828), and a searchdeliverer (830).

The memory resources (804) include a computer readable storage mediumthat contains computer readable program code to cause tasks to beexecuted by the processing resources (802). The computer readablestorage medium is a tangible storage medium. The computer readablestorage medium may be any appropriate storage medium that is not atransmission storage medium. A non-exhaustive list of computer readablestorage medium types includes non-volatile memory, volatile memory,random access memory, write only memory, flash memory, electricallyerasable program read only memory, magnetic storage media, or types ofmemory, or combinations thereof.

The social network connections determiner (806) represents programmedinstructions that, when executed, cause the processing resources (802)to determine the social network connections of a user. The socialnetwork connections may be connections from a social networking site,email contacts, instant messaging contacts, phone contacts, or othertypes of contacts, or combinations thereof.

The interest determiner (808) represents programmed instructions that,when executed, cause the processing resources (802) to determine theinterests of the user. The keyword determiner (810) representsprogrammed instructions that, when executed, cause the processingresources (802) to determine the keywords in the user's aggregated datahistory. The identified keywords are relayed by the keyword determiner(810) to the interest determiner (808) as input. The communicationsanalyzer (812) represents programmed instructions that, when executed,cause the processing, resources (802) to analyze textual communicationsto or from the user. The communications analyzer (812) works with thekeyword determiner (810) to identify keywords in the user'scommunications. The search history analyzer (814) represents programmedinstructions that, when executed, cause the processing resources (802)to analyze the searches performed by the user. The search historyanalyzer (814) works with the keyword determiner (810) to identifykeywords in the user's search history. The browsing history analyzer(816) represents programmed instructions that, when executed, cause theprocessing resources (802) to analyze the online locations that the userhas visited through a browser. The browsing history analyzer (816) workswith the keyword determiner (810) to identify keywords in the user'sbrowsing history. The interest network determiner (818) representsprogrammed instructions that, when executed, cause the processingresources (802) to determine individuals who are not already in theuser's social connections, but who share a common interest. Suchindividuals are classified as being members of the user's interestnetwork.

The social augmented group determiner (820) represents programmedinstructions that, when executed, cause the processing resources (802)to determine the user's augmented social group, which combines themembers of the user's social network and the user's interest network. Aconstraint factor determiner (822) represents programmed instructionsthat, when executed, cause the processing resources (802) to determinethe constraint factors that control the size of the user's augmentedsocial network. For example, the constraint factor determiner (822) maydetermine a rule that the members of the user's interest group can bejust those who are employed by the user's employer. In other examples,the constraining factor determiner (822) may include a rule thatindicates that the user's interests should be constrained to theinterests expressed through the user's aggregated data history within arecent time period. In yet other examples, the constraining factordeterminer (82) may also indicate that just the social connectionsdirectly connected to the user are to be included in the user's socialnetwork versus including the user's connections and those connected tothe user's connections. The constraint factor determiner (822) maydetermine the appropriate constraints based on the information relevantto the search. For example, on a confidential matter having to do withstrategy, the constraint may constrain the members of the socialaugmented network to be just those within the user's company. Fornon-confidential matters, the constraint may be less restrictive, suchas constraining the augmented social group members to be individualswithin the user's company and the company's business partners.

The query receiver (824) represents programmed instructions that, whenexecuted, cause the processing resources (802) to receive a search queryfrom the user. The search crawler (826) represents programmedinstructions that, when executed, cause the processing resources (802)to crawl online resources to identify search results that match theterms in the user's search query. The search fitter (828) representsprogrammed instructions that, when executed, cause the processingresources (802) to filter the search results to identify those searchresults that are associated with members of the user's augmented socialnetwork. The search deliverer (830) represents programmed instructionsthat, when executed, cause the processing resources (802) to deliver thefiltered search results to the user. In some examples, the searchdeliverer (830) delivers just the filtered search results that areassociated with members of the user's augmented social group. In otherexamples, the filtered search results include both search results thatare associated with members of the user's augmented social group andsearch results that are not. However, the search results that areassociated with members of the user's augmented social group areprioritized over those search results that are not.

Further, the memory resources (80.4) may be part of an installationpackage. In response to installing the installation package, theprogrammed instructions of the memory resources (804) may be downloadedfrom the installation package's source, such as a portable medium, aserver, a remote network location, another location, or combinationsthereof. Portable memory media that are compatible with the principlesdescribed herein include DVDs, CDs, flash memory, portable disks,magnetic disks; optical disks, other forms of portable memory, orcombinations thereof. In other examples, the program instructions arealready installed. Here, the memory resources can include integratedmemory such as a hard drive, a solid state hard drive, or the like.

In some examples, the processing resources (802) and the memoryresources (804) are located within the same physical component, such asa server, or a network component. The memory resources (804) may be partof the physical component's main memory, caches, registers, non-volatilememory, or elsewhere in the physical component's memory hierarchy.Alternatively, the memory resources (804) may be in communication withthe processing resources (802) over a network. Further, the datastructures, such as the libraries and may be accessed from a remotelocation over a network connection white the programmed instructions arelocated locally. Thus, the delivery system (800) may be implemented on auser device, on a server, on a collection of servers, or combinationsthereof.

The delivery system (800) of FIG. 8 may be part of a general purposecomputer. However, in alternative examples, the delivery system (800) ispart of an application specific integrated circuit.

While the examples above have been described with reference to specificassociations with the search results and the members of the augmentedsocial group, the search results may be associated in any appropriatemanner with the members of the augmented social group in accordance withthe principles described herein. Further, while the examples above havebeen described with reference to specific mechanisms for searching forsearch results, any appropriate mechanism for searching for searchresults may be used in accordance with the principles described herein.Also, while the examples above have been described with reference tospecific constraining factors to constrain the size of the user'saugmented social group, any appropriate constraining factor may be usedto constrain the size of the user's augmented social group.

The descriptions of the various examples of the present invention havebeen presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intended to beexhaustive or limited to the examples disclosed. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the described examples.For example, the sequence of tasks performed in a method may beperformed in an appropriate manner that brings about the intendedpurpose of such a method. The terminology used herein was chosen to bestexplain the principles of the examples, the practical application ortechnical improvement over technologies found in the marketplace, or toenable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the examplesdisclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for delivering a filtered search result,comprising: identifying a filtered search result in response to a searchquery from a user that is associated with at least one member of anaugmented social group, said augmented social group including socialnetwork connections of said user and individuals other than said socialnetwork connections who share a common interest with said user; anddelivering said filtered search result to said user through a userinterface.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determiningmembers of said augmented social group.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein delivering said filtered search result to said user includesprioritizing said filtered search result in an inclusive list.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein delivering said filtered search result tosaid user includes excluding other search results unassociated saidaugmented social group.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said socialnetwork connections include social networking site connections, emailcontacts, instant messaging contacts, or combinations thereof.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, wherein said augmented social network is constrainedwith a constraining factor that restricts a size of a group of saidindividuals other than said social network connections who share acommon interest with said user.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein saidconstraining factor is selected from a group consisting of co-workers,organization membership, profession, industry membership, andgeographical residence.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein saidconstraining factor is a time period wherein said common interests areconstrained to interests of said user within said time period.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, further determining said common interest with saidindividuals from an aggregated data history of said user.
 10. The methodof claim 9, wherein determining said common interest with saidindividuals from said aggregated data history of said user includesidentifying keywords in textual communications from said user.
 11. Themethod of claim 9, wherein determining said common interest with saidindividuals from said aggregated data history of said user includesinformation included in social networking profiles.
 12. The method ofclaim 9, wherein said aggregated data history of said user includesbrowsing history and/or searching history.
 13. The method of claim 1,wherein identifying said filtered search result in response to saidsearch query from said user that is associated with said at least onemember of said augmented social group includes identifying a searchablecontent that is authored by said at least one member, posted by said atleast one member, or referenced by said at least one member.
 14. Asystem for delivering a filtered search result, comprising: an augmentedsocial group determination engine to determine members of an augmentedsocial group that includes social network connections of a user andindividuals other than said social network connections who share acommon interest with said user; an identifying engine to identify afiltered search result in response to a search query from said user thatis associated with at least one of said members of said augmented socialgroup; and a delivering engine to deliver said filtered search result tosaid user through a user interface.
 15. The system of claim 14, furthercomprising an interest determination engine to determine said commoninterest with said individuals.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein saidinterest determination engine to identify keywords in textualcommunications from said user.
 17. The system of claim 14, wherein saidaugmented social network is constrained with a constraining factor thatrestricts a size of said social network.
 18. A computer program productfor delivering a filtered search result, comprising: a tangible computerreadable storage medium, said tangible computer readable storage mediumcomprising computer readable program code embodied therewith, saidcomputer readable program code comprising program instructions that,when executed, causes a processor to: determine an interest of a userwith identifying keywords in an aggregated data history of said user intextual communications, browsing history, and searching history;determine members of an augmented social group that includes socialnetwork connections of said user and individuals other than said socialnetwork connections who share a common interest with said user; identifya filtered search result in response to a search query from said userthat is linked to at least one of said members of said augmented socialgroup; and deliver said filtered search result to said user through auser interface.
 19. The computer program product of claim 18, furthercomprising computer readable program code comprising programinstructions that, when executed, causes said processor to prioritizesaid filtered search result in an inclusive list.
 20. The computerprogram product of claim 18, further comprising computer readableprogram code comprising program instructions that, when executed, causessaid processor to include in said filtered search result content that isauthored by, posted by, or referenced by at least one of said members ofsaid augmented social group.